Lacrosse is a game which has been played for many hundreds of years. The game is scored by attempting to put a ball into the goal of the opposing team. The ball, of a hard elastomeric composition, is carried and tossed or thrown from a stick. As far back as can be determined, the sticks have been made of wood, usually hickory, shaped by hand by American and Canadian Indians, with whom the game originated. Up until rather recent times most lacrosse sticks were still made from solid wood and in the ancient handcrafting way.
Lacrosse sticks were in former times provided at one end with a crook and more recently with a bow forming a closed frame to which lacings are secured. The sticks have been traditionally strung by hand using leather, gut, synthetic cord or other materials to form the lacings. The pocket or net structure for throwing and catching the ball is formed by interweaving a combination of some of the above materials and attaching the resulting net structure to the frame through holes drilled or molded into the frame of the head. The net structure can then be adjusted by tightening and loosening the proper strings to obtain the desired playing characteristics.
More recently lacrosse sticks have been made with removable plastic heads as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,495. Such plastic heads are more uniform and much less expensive to produce and repair then the traditional hardwood sticks. The net structure on traditional hardwood sticks or more modern sticks with plastic heads are almost universally attached with lacings in a manner that can subject the lacings to abrasion or even tearing. This problem is most serious where the lacings are attached to the frame in the scoop-shaped end of the head. During play, the scoop-shaped end often comes in contact with the ground, such as when a loose ball is scooped up, thus causing abrasion of the lacings. Also, contact with other sticks, during play or during "face offs" pulls and tears the lacings.